Allan Chawner (Photographer)

Allan Chawner is an Associate Professor (retired) of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle, with a research focus in Fine Art Photography. Based in Newcastle, he has photographed the city, its people, and landscapes since 1975. His lifelong collaborator in practice has been his partner, Carol Carter.

Born in Lismore, he completed a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts – Photography) in 1987 at the Newcastle College of Advanced Education (later incorporated into the University of Newcastle). In 1992, he gained a Master of Visual Art (Photography) from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy (Fine Art) from the University of Newcastle in 2004.

Over the course of his academic career, he taught across photo media in the Bachelor of Arts program. This included film-based darkroom practice in both black-and-white and colour photography, studio-based practice, and digital photography – all explored within the context of fine art and gallery-based work.

His artistic practice explores notions of place, expressed through portraiture and landscape. He has exhibited consistently over several decades, often in collaboration with writers and composers. His work has been shown internationally through cultural exchange projects and in regional and community venues outside the mainstream gallery circuit. Across these contexts, his photography responds to ideas of identity – of both individuals and the communities to which they belong.

His collaborations with poet and creative writer Paul Kavanagh have been particularly significant, with exhibitions presented in France, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Canada. Paul’s writing offered insightful glimpses into individuals’ lives and their cultural connections to place, using a distinctive ‘speaking voice’ that gave authenticity to each collaboration. He has often described himself as a returning photographer; like Paul, he came to know a place through its people over time. One example is the Rouchel Bushman’s Carnival series, photographed across two decades, which reflects the residents’ enduring relationship with their land and community. This approach is mirrored in his gallery practice, where collections of images are assembled to form layered narratives of shared experience.

In more recent years, he has collaborated with composers and musicians to create projected performance works. One such project, Kalkadunga, was performed by The Song Company with William Barton and featured music by Ross Edwards. Photographed on Kalkadunga Country in central Queensland, William’s ancestral home, the projected images provided a visual context to the soundscape, giving audiences a deeper sense of time and place. The work toured nationally, including the Melbourne Recital Centre, and was also presented at music festivals in Belgium in 2009.

Another significant collaboration has been with Newcastle musician and composer Andrew Chubb. Andrew composed and performed Meditation at Bar Beach, accompanied by a live projection of high-resolution panoramic images of Bar Beach photographed over seven years. This work twice toured to Canada and was acquired for the collection of St Mary’s Gallery in Halifax. The piece explores the ways people engage with the seascape - its atmosphere, shifting light, and contemplative qualities. The solo piano composition mirrors these characteristics, creating a dialogue between sound, image, and place.

Through these collaborations and evolving practices, his work continues to engage with the relationships between people, culture, and place. Whether exhibited in international contexts, regional galleries, or community settings, his photography seeks to create a dialogue that is both personal and collective. At its core, his practice is about returning - returning to places, to people, and to stories - so that identity is revealed not in isolation, but in the ongoing connections that shape who we are.